ehsia.com – my stuff

The A320 is the latest portable gadget added to my collection.   It comes in Black or White with 4GB built in.   It uses miniSD cards.  These can be costly but thanks to adapters, you can use common microSD cards.  Not going to bore you with more specs since you’ll probably read it elsewhere.

Out of all my portable gaming devices, the PSP is my favourite.  However it is rather big at times and thus the reason why I wanted to get a Dingoo.  The A320 is somewhere between a Gameboy Micro and PSP 2000/slim.  It’s pretty well made and has an interface similar to Sony’s XMB.  It’s just not as polished though.

For about $80US, it’s not cheap but it does a lot.  If they were about $60, they would fly off the shelves.  I ordered it from DX on June 2nd and it came to my house on June 11th!  That’s fast!

I was a bit disappointed with the gaming performance.  I bought it primarily to play CPS2 and Neo Geo games.  There was definitely slowdown for most games.  For CPS1/NES/GBA games, it’s very good though.  SNES wasn’t too great either.  The PSP blows it away in terms of speed for CPS2/Neo Geo games.   The PSP can of course play PSP games too which is a major plus.  The PSP also has a bigger, brighter, and nicer screen.  Emulators are miles ahead on the PSP with the exception of SNES, which no portable system seems to emulate very well at full speed.

There are also native games on the A320 like 7 Days but I wasn’t really into them.  They were GBA quality.  I played 7 Days for a few minutes and was rather impressed with the graphics but though it was poorly executed in the way of the dialog.  It was very “Engrish”, lots of grammar and spelling errors.  The story sound like it was written in Chinese and then put though a Google translator.

Sometimes the Dingoo would freeze and it was a huge pain in the butt to scrounge around for a small pin or needle to poke the reset button!  There are tutorials on the net on how to make a reset button that sticks out more but really I have better things to do! haha I just might after I get annoyed enough.

Pretty much all the divx files downloaded can be played easily on the Dingoo.  This is another reason why I like the Dingoo.  I also download lots of FLV clips from Dailymotion and they just play fine with out any conversion.

It plays every audio format I can through at it.  MP3/APE/FLAC/etc.   Call me crazy but most of my files are MP3.  I think the iPhone/Touch/PSP is a better music player.  It has a hold switch to prevent accidental button presses.

The Dingoo is a neat all around device.  However, for what the PSP Slim can do, I’d take that over a Dingoo any day.  The PSP scene has fantastic homebrew apps, fairly stable and fast emulators, and is quite active.

If you’re like me and love collecting portable gadgets get one!  If not, find yourself a hackable PSP and enjoy.  You’re not missing out on a lot at the moment.  In the future, there could be significant improvements so keep an eye out on the Dingoo scene.  The Dingoo is a jack of all trades but master of none and still a gadget to have if you like this sort of thing.  If the Dingoo homebrew community could write better, optimized programs, this device would be a must have.

Check out the photos.  I found a very snug fit case from Ross for $6US.  It’s a Case Logic phone holder.  The same thing is sold at Walmart for around $18!

Dingoo A-320 2.8″ LCD GBA/NGO/SNES/ NES/SFC/CPS1/2/+ Emulator Game Console (4GB Built-in + Mini-SD) (Black)
Dingoo A-320 2.8″ LCD GBA/NGO/SNES/ NES/SFC/CPS1/2/+ Emulator Game Console (4GB Built-in + Mini-SD) (White)

This BT GPS reciever lets you become location aware.  Running desktop apps like Garmin Mobile PC or MS Streets and Trips, you can find your way around town.  I paid around $50 (shipping included).

For the $$ I paid, I got quite a lot.  Included in the package was a USB car adapter (you can use this with other USB devices too), USB cable, USB AC Adapter (again you can use it with other devices), BL-5C battery.

The great thing about this device is it uses a standard common Nokia BL-5C/A cellphone battery.   If you have Nokia’s lying around like I do, you’ll most likely have one to use as a spare already.

It’s a tiny device at only 6×4x1.5cm.  Since it’s bluetooth you can probably just shove it in the glovebox.

To work with your notebook/PC.  You have to have Bluetooth capability.  Most modern notebooks will have it built-in.  If not get one of these tiny USB dongles.

Use your Bluetooth manager to find the gps reciever.   Set up is different for each bluetooth device.  I have BlueSoleil and this is how to set it up.  It’s similar with other BT dongles.

Right-click and pair with your PC.

The passkey is 0000.  (4 zeros)

Create a serial port connection.

As you can see, a serial port (COM7) has been created.  You’re almost done.

Using your favourite GPS application, mine is Garmin Mobile PC, go to the settings and “Use Bluetooth GPS”.  That’s it.

I added a couple more buttons to the Hori stick since the FBA-XXX emulator uses R3 button to pull up the in-game menu.  I figure I might as well add 2 more buttons for L3 and R3 to make it more complete.

What you need is a 30mm hole saw and you can start making more holes for you stick.

I changed the artwork on my Hori stick and also upgraded the buttons to arcade Sanwa ones.  Here are some pictures of the mod.

I took the time to use quick connect terminals so I can change button layouts or upgrade easier in the future.  The PCB comes from a PS1 Dual Shock and requires no soldering at all.  Holes had to have the tabs removed and widened with dremel to allow the Sanwa’s to fit properly.

Artwork was printed on Epson R380 inkjet, laminated and then used double sided tape.

With the proper adapter, this baby will work any console.  XBOX/PS1/PS2/PS3/Gamecube/PC/etc.

This HOWTO will show how to convert an arcade stick that works for only one console to work with multiple systems.  You can also take this opportunity to buy some quality arcade buttons to replace the stock ones.

Material:

Hori Wii Fighting Stick $50
Playstation 1 Dual Shock (Early A revision) $8
PS1 to XBOX converter $10
PS1 to gamecube converter $10
PS1 to PS3 converter $20
20-22AWG wiring

Tools:

Soldering iron
Solder pump
screw drivers

Why an arcade stick?
I have an XBOX, Wii and PS3.  My favourite console is the original XBOX.  Once softmodded it is one heck of a machine.  I can play hundreds of arcade games from the past on MAME-oX, FBA-XXX, and many others consoles like NES, SNES, Genesis.  There are tons of native fighting games for it too.

I consider myself an old school gamer.  I find myself playing more of the older games then the new ones.  My first video game machine was an Atari 2600 and I grew up sticking coins into arcade machines.  A gamepad just doesn’t do these games justice.

Why take a perfectly good fighting stick and shove an ancient PS1 gamepad inside it?

It’s really hard to find an arcade stick that works with more than one console these days.  I wanted to have only 1  stick to work on all my systems because of space. The PS1 Dual Shock is one of the most popular gamepads ever made.  It’s easy to find and is well documented.  The PS1 Dual Shock is also one of the simpliest and has a lot of buttons.

There are lots of converters for the PS1 controllers to work with other systems like the PS3, 360, Gamecube, and XBOX.  It’ll probably be compatible with future systems too granted someone makes converters for them.

Why not make your own from scratch?
An arcade stick is in a sense just a box with switches.  Very simple.  However,  I’m not very crafty with wood since I don’t have the tools.  I decided to just gut out a premade one from Hori since I had one lying around not used.

Why not use an X-Arcade works, it works with all systems too.
Those are just too big for my tastes.  I need it compact.  Also it costs a lot if you factor in all the converters for your systems.

You can use any current generation arcade stick and convert it to a PS1 compatible one.  I chose to use my little utilized Hori Wii Fighting stick.

Let’s start.

I decided to go with a Hori Wii Fighting stick because that’s what I had at the moment.

The first thing is to find a PS1 controller and dismantle it except for the PCB and wiring.  There are many revisions of the PS1 Dual Shock.  The one I’m using is SCPH-1200 A (early revision).  There’s H, M, etc.  The best one to get are revision A (later) and M.  Those actually require solderless connection points to the PCB.  But if you can’t find those, an early A revision is easy to solder.

Check out slagcoin’s site for the PCB diagram for this controller (SCPH-1200 A)

Next we open up the Hori stick and desolder its PCB from the buttons and chuck it in the trash.

Wire up the ground wires.  I use black wires and daisy chain the ground wires to go to one common ground on the PS1’s PCB.

The black wires goes to the common ground connection.

Now all the signal wires connected to the PCB.

To strengthen the connections, I use hot glue.

The completed stick with a TAC PS1 to PS3 converter.  This stick will now work with other consoles with converters

My next step would be to paint it, and put in arcade quality buttons from Sanwa.  I’ve ordered them and should be putting them in soon.